The company accounted for 30% of the premium smartphone market in India

China-based smartphone maker OnePlus has reportedly decided to relocate the data of all Indian users and store it in local servers to comply with the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) data localisation ruling.

According to CEO Pete Lau, the company has also said that it is setting up a research and development (R&D) centre in Hyderabad. The centre will begin its operations by early 2019.

Lau also added that the Indian R&D centre will become it’s largest within the next three years, leaving behind its China centre.

The phone maker accounted for 30% of the premium smartphone market in India during the July-September quarter.

As the segment continues to grow, the China-based smartphone makers are stepping up their game to strengthen their position in the Indian market. In November, Vivo announced its plans to invest over $573.95 Mn (INR 4,000 Cr). Using this investment, the company is looking to set up a manufacturing plant in the country.

With the ongoing digitisation in India, the country is projected to have 829 Mn smartphone users in the country by 2022, according to a report by Cisco.

However, with the increasing penetration of smartphones and internet, the central government has taken a firm decision on data localisation in order to protect Indian users during data breach.

Earlier in September, another China-based smartphone maker, Xiaomi, had also announced a shift of Indian user data to the local Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure from its US and Singapore servers.